I agree, Event Horizon is the best Anderson movie I’ve seen, with the caveat that I haven’t seen his post-Resident Evil stuff, nor Soldier, and I’ve got a big soft spot for Kurt Russell. However, I am slightly more lukewarm on Event Horizon than a lot of folks. I haven’t watched it in some time, but I recall being underwhelmed. To some extent, I think it was over hyped to me, as my dad raved that it was terrifying when he saw it in the theater. I did not find that to be the case, but, in so far as haunted house movies go, it’s a decent one of those (IN SPAAAAAACE). My letterboxd says I gave it 3.5 stars and that still feels correct to me.

The thing that holds it back is that I think, in a different director’s hands, there is a legitimately terrifying movie to be made using most of the same ingredients. I’m by no means equivocating these movies, but an interesting point of comparison is the Solaris remake that Soderbergh and Clooney did in the early 00s. They share the conceit of “there is a mysterious entity in space which keeps showing one of the characters visions of his dead-by-suicide wife to disastrous effect” (insert weird-that-it-happened-twice.gif).

By all accounts, the Solaris remake is not an exceptional movie (in fact, EH is rated slightly higher with a 3.3 vs Solaris’ 3.2, for whatever that’s worth). Also, Solaris is very much a character drama first and foremost, but there are a few sequences which I found legitimately unsettling in ways that EH mostly failed to evoke, despite covering similar beats.

In fact, I think I’ve talked myself into doing this as a double feature. Solaris I saw on television probably close to 20 years ago, and Event Horizon I watched on a laptop in Afghanistan, so I could stand to revisit both of them. I’m curious if watching them together will enhance the experience in any way, or if it will just give me tonal whiplash lol

Admittedly I don’t remember a tremendous amount of it, but my recollection is mildly positive. If the 1995 movie is 2.5 stars outta 5 (in my personal rubric, that equates to ‘I like it, but acknowledge it’s not good’, and also happens to be where all of Paul W.S. Anderson’s films live), I’d give the 2021 version 3 stars.

It benefits from making use of the R rating, and having better fight choreography and stunt performances. I think those are much more important to get right than characterization or plot, at least in a Mortal Kombat movie.

For what it’s worth, idgaf about the lore of the franchise, so a fan of the games may take issue with that take, but my perspective is one of a fan of martial arts movies, not necessarily an MK fan.

I assume your tongue is fairly firmly in your cheek, but I can’t think of a better example for “mediocre movie” than Mortal Kombat. Lots of stuff to like about it (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Robin Shou’s hair, Goro, several of the sets, etc), mixed in with mostly underwhelming martial arts and cinematography, with characters whose depth reflects their origins. Don’t get me wrong, I like it, but I’m not crusading to convince people of Paul W.S. Anderson’s misunderstood genius lol

Y’know, I’m sure the intent of the comment is in the vein of, “I persist because fuck them”, but there’s a reading of this that implies you’ve a list, and you’re checking it twice…

I agree. That’s why I felt compelled to write this post. The gameplay is far better than its wrapper makes it appear.

Was Xeen the M&M setting with the explicit science-fantasy inclination? I’ve never played any of the straight RPGs, but I’ve trundled through enough wikis to discover some bonkers concepts in those games. Like, one ends with your party fighting through a dungeon only to discover that the dungeon is actually a buried space ship or something like that?

You just helped a mildly infuriating puzzle piece finally slide into place for me. For years, I’ve internalized xbow as shorthand for crossbow, but couldn’t for the life of me remember where I’d have picked that up. I played a lot of AoE2 back in the day, though, so that seems the likely origin.

You could put Daniel Day-Lewis in that role and I think it would still be a terrible film. A good actor cannot rescue a story that inept. They might be able to wring some pathos from otherwise inept dialog, but it’s not going to change the fundamental structural issues with the movie, and, as you allude to, it might strip it of what makes it entertaining in the first place.

Full disclosure, the last time I studied chemistry was 20 years ago, and I was not a particularly good student, so take this with a heaping helping of NaCl.

It isn’t the direct reaction of Drano + PVC that causes the issue. Rather, it’s the heat given off from the reaction of the clog and the lye. Apparently it’s significant enough to be an issue. I tried looking up how much heat might be released by the reaction, but I went crosseyed reading the formula, so someone else will have to do the math on that one.

Also, I know you said caustic material doesn’t react with metal, but Google doubts you on that front, for whatever that’s worth. In fact, zinc is specifically called out as a metal with which sodium hydroxide reacts pretty strongly, which is important because many water lines are steel galvanized with, you guessed it, zinc.

Mmos and arpgs are intrinsically linked by their gameplay loops. Admittedly, this can vary to a greater or lesser degree depending on the specific games being compared, but Diablo 2 was, in many ways, proto-WoW.

Wandering through to mention that your local library almost certainly has a collection of cookbooks spanning decades, and, depending on your area, might even have stuff tied specifically to your region. Take the book, photocopy the recipes you’re interested in, return it, get to cooking!

After VtM 1’s tumultuous release, not to mention the drama surrounding the sequel’s development, that makes sense to me.

That being said, I don’t think it’s quite as big a leap as the person above is making it sound. To use their words, The Chinese Room are known for “strong art direction, atmosphere, and story, [and] weak gameplay”. They also suggest that the games TCR make are “the exact opposite” of Bloodlines 1. Which is kinda boggling my mind, cause I’m pretty sure the critical and user consensus of that game is that it excelled in its art direction, atmosphere, and story, and fell comparatively short in its gameplay. In fairness, I think he was referring to the limited open world nature of VtM 1 vs the straight linearity of the “walking sim” genre, but still. I’d argue the most memorable section of VtM is the Ocean House Hotel, which is, basically, a linear walking sim level, and it’s not as though the og game did a ton with its open world.

Now there’s an argument to be made that Paradox made the wrong call by doubling down on the peripheral elements of the game, rather than hiring a team that has ARPG gameplay bonafides, but I think that’s only an argument that can be made with the benefit of hindsight. Additionally, is it true that the gameplay/combat of VtM2 is glaringly bad? I can’t speak for myself, but the handful of reviews I read characterize it as serviceable at worst. Which, again, seems right in line with the first game.

I’m very much on the outside looking in though.

Apropos of nothing more than my idle speculation, I’d guess they will return to the transport tycoon genre if they are able to do so. Before Skylines took the crown from SimCity as the preeminent example of the genre, they made the Cities in Motion games, which were narrowly focused on improving the mass transit of existing cities (as opposed to building the city itself). I know the second CiM game had some interaction between the city and your efforts as transportation czar (in the same way you could indirectly influence a citiy’s development in, say Railroad Tycoon), but the emphasis was always on transit. I imagine the newly independent team will want to keep their focus narrow, unless another publisher swoops in to replace the safety net.

Lol you’re correct. Idk what happened there, meant to say fun!

Tremors is up there for me. Every couple of years I revisit it and have just as much time as the last.

Sorry man, I’m not knowledgeable enough about computers to provide a summary, but I’ll mention this fun tidbit: apparently, the shipped version of task manager contained thus guy’s home phone number in the code by accident. He commented it out, but left the phone number in there, which means he can find instances of the source code being hosted online by reverse searching his home phone. Which is still a number he maintains, and he asks people not to call. Which is a bold thing to leave in the video imo

Tyl what til means!

Man, if they aren’t putting “It’s David Cronenberg’s Kenshi, more or less” on the metaphorical box, they’re making a mistake.

I typically turn the water off if I’m brushing in the shower. Hop in, shampoo, rinse, apply conditioner, turn off water, brush teeth, scrub body, turn water on, rinse, done. Makes use of otherwise dead time I’d spend waiting for the conditioner to work, and is comfortable enough with the residual heat from the walls and steam.

Are you insane, or have you achieved CHIM?

Not that there’s an appreciable difference…looking at you, Michael Kirkbride.